CDs or DVDs from DVCs ?
 

Anyone thought about compiling the DVChallenge shorts on discs? I would be willing to tackle it if I could get everyone to submit a MiniDV tape with their shorts on it. I could pull them, compress them and either do it as Windows media or Quicktime on CDROM or if you guys would want, I could do actual DVDs of each years entries.

Anyone up for that? Everyone have MiniDV or similar tapes from the past 2 challenges?

Sean McHenry

It would be cool with a DVD but might be hard to handle. I live in PAL-land which is a different size... I don't think DVDs can be cross-format, can they? If my movies are converted to NTSC I think they loose some of the top/bottom.

I will look into that issue. That would be a problem then. We could however use very high rate QT files on DVD and have pretty good quality.

So the question is now, does everyone still have their original work to make high quality QT files from? If you have tapes, I can still capture and convert if needed. That way we are all using the same quality and type Codec.

Sean McHenry

Ooohh.. I came up with another problem.. my tapes are PAL-tapes.. but it's possible to send a CD-ROM or over the Internet? Just as we set a standard for how it should be encoded...

I think I can pull PAL tapes into my system. The DSR-11 can do PAL but I'm not sure of the rest of the workflow but it should be normal, just 25fps vs 29.97. For the output I would choose QT or whatever we come up with as the best looking codec, send it out in native frame rate.

On the other hand, if you want to send a QT file on CDROM, that would be fine. Let me think about formats and file sizes, etc.

Sean

I keep a 1024x576 (horizontally upsized), 25fps master on my hard disk. I could burn this and send it to you. I'd love to see the stuff on a DVD - OR, I could create the DVD VOB for my short, pre-formated and nicely packaged.

As for the PAL vs NTSC, the main problem is, I believe, the noticeable jitter on continuous movement, at least on my DVD player.

Cheers,

Hugo

I was considering the same thing Sean if there's anything I can do to help let me know. I could go ahead and send yout he item as an mpeg2 file and aiff or whatever if you'd like.

Give me a day or more to ponder the best methods. I think QT might be the best. Or pre-rendered VOBs perhaps. Then the encode quality would be up to the original creator which in a real art setting might be important to the artist.

Give me a few days to get it straight in my head and we'll come up with a good method. I just hope everyone saved a fresh copy of their final work.

Sean

Hey Sean,

I'm open to this concept. Good idea! Will be sure to save a tape of the flick if this pans out. Like Nick, I'd be willing to help you with this. Feel free to contact me anytime.

I'm open to this idea too. I'd suggest having everyone mail in an .avi on CD so there is no tape logging, which is a pain in the ass. Sean, shoot me an email about this! If you want to put it together, that's cool. I'm sure Keith will give me a good deal on designing a DVD cover.

I'd be happy to send mine in (if you think it worthy of being included hehe)

yeah sending a cd or dvd in with the .avi on it would save someone capturing all the tapes

With the PAL/NTSC problem just make both and people that want PAL get a PAL dvd.....

But doesn't bother me i can play both with no problems

Phillip,
If I am going to do this, and it looks like I will, I would only really want to do it if I can get 100% of the entries from DVC1,2 and 3. I suppose each would have their own DVD at this point even though DVC1 only had a handful of entries.

DVC3 has 27 and at 4 minutes max each, that's a full DVD at reasonable rates. Many more and we may have to go to double DVDs.

I will start e-mailing all the entrants in the next day or two to make sure we can get some sort of DVD capable files to do this with. As a last resort, I could simply do a CDROM using the submitted formats they were given to the judges in. DVDs would naturally be better.

I'll get the details written out and get with everyone before the weekend hits.

Tell everyone to keep archival copies around. Always a good idea anyway.

Sean

It might be a good idea to make those DVDs as ISO-files and we could share them on a bittorrentnetwork.

That can be done as well. I personally don't do any file sharing applications. I have but after the last reinstall of my system, I haven't put it back on and likely won't. Downloaded files have caused me a lot of issues in the past with nasty bugs being burried inside and so on.

I will however say that anyone that wants to load them up after the fact, good for me. They are free to all who want them, unless somebody wants to keep their rights. An issue I never touched on as I believe these are all open to anyone who wants to look at them. I will include a copyright statement on the DVD, like all the commercial DVDs. We all know what good that does.

On the other hand, it might help if 2 years from now we see a blockbuster come out on the big screen called "Secrets" for example, or "Frame 37".

Sean

I am happy to send my short in on CD or DVD. In fact, I already have mine burned to a DVD (Had a 'screening' for my kids).

-Josh

Maybe DVC 1+2 could be on the same disc and then DVC 3 and the additional ones could be on different discs.

I wrote Dylan about this but I am thinking we should include all the entrants and not just the winners. I am sure everyone would like to see their video on the DVDs so, open call. I will be sending e-mails to all past and present entrants to send me their finished videos.

As we will be pushing the limits of home DVD burning, and as dual layer DVDs aren't quite the norm yet and some players won't work, I think I am going to ask everyone to send me an actual video on tape or already done on DVD that I can pull into my system as video. That way I can manage the bit rate overall to make everything fit. We are pushing 2 hours as it is. I still may have to go to double DVDs.

Better to have them all encoded the same so get copies ready on tape or DVD if you have them. Otherwise, the highest bit rate STANDARD CODEC AVI or QuickTime files you can do on DVD or CD as files. If you use non standard Codecs (sorry, that includes h246 for now) I won't be able to transcode them.

I really want everyone on the disc so e-mail me for suggestions if you get stumped.

I'll be e-mailing everyone so don't send me anything yet, especially not via e-mail. My server will explode.

Thanks folks, more soon.

Sean

Sounds good Sean

I just sent you an e-mail. But I forgot what it was I was talking about. So I sent another e-mail which questioned the first and did my best to explain what the point was.

While sending both the first and second e-mail, I noticed I forgot to attach the PDF's and the high res movie files that were supposed to go in the first e-mail so I sent two more e-mails to you WITH the attachments.

E-mail me when you can.

Evil Bradley

Can't we all send you mpeg2 files with a standard bitrate so there is no conversion needed? Should be able to fit any short onto a cd-r encoded as mpeg2

Cool, got them all except, well, all of them. That's OK though cause I rendered out both my shorts in h246 codec which came out to about 345 Mb and sent them along to you but I used this program that splits it into pieces so it won't clog your e-mail...There's about 643 seperate files on the way so warm up your WinZip. I'm only sending 27 each day to keep bandwidth at a usable level.

Thanks for thinking of me....

Sean : o

Send me your videos.
 

OK folks, as we are talking about doing DVC4 now, before we get the juices all flowing again, I thought I would ask everyone that took part in the past DV Challenges to send me a copy on tape (VHS or MiniDV) or DVD of their entered works. If you send a DVD, just send a finished DVD as if it were going to play on your DVD player. In other words, don't send me some odd formated video as a file on a DVD or CD unless you absolutly have to.

If you send your entries as video, I will be able to capture them and create a single DVD for each of the DVD Challenges. When you send them to me, send a short note with your contact info, any notes you can think of on production and let me know where you ranked in the contest outcome. Please also send along a SIGNED statement saying the entire contents, audio and video are yours and are not copyrighted in any way, including the script, by anyone else and that I have your permission to create these DVDs for the group. This should keep me out of hot water if your cousin thinks they should have gotten paid for their apperance in your video, etc.

I have a nice DVChallenge DVD template made up and ready to roll now so start sending your videos.

Please send COPIES ONLY of your videos. I don't want the awsome responsibility of handeling your only copy of a prize winning contest entry.

Please begin sending copies to:

Sean McHenry
Deep Blue Edit
6186 Ravenhill Road
Hilliard, Ohio 43026

I do have to say that if you can't get a copy of your video to me as video on tape or DVD, it may not make it to the DVD. You can't expect to blow up a 320x240 Windows Media file or QuickTime file to full rez video that will look good at all so please make every effort to send actual video.

I look forward to doing these videos. I will also contribute to the cause by providing a single DVD copy of the finished version to everone that sends me videos. Additional copies can be made from them on your own or I can make more if we cover the cost of additional DVDs.

Thanks folks,

Sean

Looking back on this thread, if you have rendered MPEG2 files, I can work with those. Send those or the aforementioned video formats. If you use MPEG2 files on DVDs or CDROMs, I'll pull them into Encore and author them as a new DVD.

Sean

Sean, what about PAL and NTSC ?
Will you do PAL and NTSC DVD for each challenges (a lot of work...) ? Or only a NTSC DVD and we have to convert our PAL video to NTSC ?


Cheers,

Benjamin.

Thank you Sean for setting yourself up to do this monumental task. I'm a bit swamped through this week, but will find the time soon to get the video to you. Thanks a bunch.
-Jon

I should be able to do both PAL and NTSC yes. Let me know what version you would require and I'll try to make sure I remember to make enough of both.

These won't be super fancy but they will be something to show the kids and friends one day down the road.

Everyone will have their own button so you can go directly to each video. If you have a short paragraph you want to describe the video, send that too. I'll put it on the menu for your specific video.

It may take me a while to get these out after everyone sends theirs in but I will post a deadline to get the videos to me soon. I wouldn't want to hold up the final version waiting on anyone so send them in as soon as you can folks.

I'll be watching the mail.

Sean

Could I have until after this weekend to make special features for my movies? I'd really like to make commentaries at the very least, with maybe interviews and other fun stuff. It won't take me long to make them, I'd need just as long to free up the time just to get all the stuff ready to go onto MiniDV anyway. Let me know what you think. P.S. I wish I saw this thread before now!!

Take the time. Only issue would be that I will have to check to make sure all the entries would still fit on one DVD. We'll give it a try.

Sean

Somebody would be kind enough to put a sample of the mentioned statement ?
English is not my native tongue and I don't want to write non sense.


Thanks,

Benjamin.